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Game Policies
Activity At two weeks of Inactivity, Primary players will have their consent levels taken down to Secondary. They may lose their territories or titles if challenged, or if they lose their eligibility due to consent levels. At one month of Inactivity, Primary and Secondary players will have their consent levels taken down to Tertiary. Please inform staff if you plan on taking a vacation or expect to be busy RL. We will keep your character for you if possible. Age All PCs must be 18+ of age, no exceptions. In real life, the age of consent in Germany is 14. Because of all sorts of problems that we don’t want to get into by opening this can of worms, all PCs must be 18+ of age. Because of real life age of consent and source material like Wir Kinder com Bahnhof Zoo, underaged sex is acknowledged to happen in the background between NPCs. It can be mentioned or acknowledged in RP but it should not be the focus of RP. Any scenes involving it should be FTB’d. All players OOCly must be 18+ of age. Alts Players have one main character, with which they are expected (though not a must) to engage in the Vampire sphere (i.e., as a Vampire, Ghoul, or Thrall). Players can have a secondary alt mortal who will have absolutely nothing to do with the Vampire sphere. The identity of this secondary alt needs to be made public to avoid any COI. Players are asked the courtesy of not involving the secondary alts of others in the Vampire sphere. This includes ghouling, thralling, or being made retainer in some way. When someone’s secondary alt becomes involved in the Vampire sphere, other alternatives will be sought or they will be asked to make a decision between their alt and their main. Please do not force other players to make this decision. Feeding or a one-off Masquerade breach does not count as involvement. Being a Touchstone however, does. Books As core books, we use the God Machine Chronicles, and Blood and Smoke: the Stryx Chronicles. 1st edition books are used for theme purposes and to supplement (but not supersede) information on the 2nd edition books. The lore of V:tR is purposefully kept unreliable and vague so that different versions will have their place in the game. Therefore we do accept themes from the Covenant, Clan and Bloodline books, as well as other supplement books from the Vampire line. Consent We have different consent levels: 'Primary' (ICly, Primus) For the full political vampire experience. Get stabbed in the back! Stab somebody else in the back! This character acts for their own agency. They’re here to climb the ladder, play the game, etc. Consent is not required for anything done to Primus characters, though we do ask players to be courteous and keep in mind the other player’s OOC enjoyment of the RP. Primus characters are not restricted in terms of political titles they can hold or number of territories they can maintain. There is no limit for the number of Primus characters in a coterie. 'Secondary' (ICly, Secundus) A consent level for ghouls or the vampire retainers of major political players. With this consent level, you can take a backseat while also participate in competition in a meaningful way. You may also play for yourself, in a less involved capacity compared to Primary players. Secundus characters are protected from permanent death or template changes without the consent of their players. Character changes that will majorly affect play, such as Vitae addiction, Blood-bonding, long-term mind control, being kicked out of their Covenant or Clan, and others, will also require the consent from the players. Secundus characters are limited to certain political titles and can only hold one territory. There is no limit for the number of Secundus characters in a coterie. 'Tertiary' (ICly, Tertius) Tertiary players just want to RP with their friends and (hopefully) use very little staff resources. They play in a PvE capacity, participating in plots and events, but rarely engage in a confrontational way against other players. Tertius characters are protected from permanent death or template changes without the consent of their players. Character changes that will majorly affect play, such as Vitae addiction, Blood-bonding, long-term mind control, being kicked out of their Covenant or Clan, and others, will also require the consent from the players. Other players will be asked to refrain from attacking or taking aggressive actions towards Tertius characters without their player’s consent. Tertiary players are not allowed to initiate PvP actions, such as unseating a character’s Influence or attacking another character’s Haven. Their Merits and properties are also protected from attack by other players. Conversely, their City, Clan, and Covenant Status merits are limited to 2, and their Influence merits (Status, Retainer and Allies) are limited to 3. They cannot be in control of whole Territories (but can be in control of Sites or sub-regions). They cannot have political titles. There is no limit for the number of Tertius characters in a coterie. 'Probation' New characters can take Probation for their first one month of playing. This consent level is to help people learn the ropes and ease them into full blown PvP (or not) sometime in the future. Players are encouraged to dip their toes in political competition and learn as they go. With this consent level, you are given some leeway when you make mistakes. Players are protected from irreversible or major changes to their character, including permanent character death. Character changes that will majorly affect play, such as Vitae addiction, Blood-bonding, long-term mind control, being kicked out of their Covenant or Clan, and others, will also require the consent from the players. When newbies face negative consequences because of some IC action, they should generally given the benefit of the doubt, and to some extent, guided through their options including a possible retcon. When engaging in a confrontational way against a Probational character, the player should be warned and their opinion sought before proceeding. Probational players are restricted to one Territory only and can only hold certain court titles. Players cannot change consent levels to dodge IC consequences. Players can go up consent levels, but any requests to go down consent levels will be heavily scrutinised. Cheating Because of the political nature of our game, we have a NO TOLERANCE policy with regards to metagaming and cheating. Players who use OOC information in bad faith for IC purposes will be found in violation of this policy. Players who try to manipulate IC events or decisions using OOC means will be found in violation of this policy. It is also against the rules for staff to manipulate IC events or decisions using OOC means. Players who cheat or abuse the system will be banned with extreme prejudice. After a set date, the offender may appeal to be unbanned on a case by case basis. Staff members who use their OOC influence to try to manipulate player’s IC decisions will be banned from staffing and could face restrictions on their characters. Experience We will have auto XP spending as long as it is not abused by players. XP spending justification is not required. You can put the code in yourself as long as you have the prerequisites and XP. We don’t tolerate abuse of the system. If lots of players abuse the system, self-spending will be stopped and the offending players will be called out as “this is why we can’t have nice things”. And then, staff will be spending their precious time approving XP spends for players instead of doing plot and other fun stuff. Your call. Fade to Black Players can request FTB for any reason. “You are a pain to RP with and I have better things to do with my time,” is a valid reason. No one can be made to RP anything or with anyone they don’t want to. That being said, it doesn’t mean you can avoid negative consequences to your IC actions. Events can be summarised or dealt with in a commjob, where everyone just agree that it has happened, without being being forced to spend a few hours RPing it out. We just don’t believe in RP where the writing feels like a punishment rather than a rewarding, entertaining experience. Inventory Each player has the responsibility to keep their inventory up to date. If the item is not in your inventory, you can’t use it for a mechanical benefit. For starting equipment, players can add to themselves a reasonable amount of items, each with the resource requirement not exceeding the character’s dots in Resources. It is not necessary for players to spend money points getting these resources (we assume that the money has been spent sometime in the past). Players can add starting equipment to themselves for two weeks after approval. After two weeks, items that you add to yourself are no longer considered “starting”, and will require spending money points. For items not found in our approved list of items, please submit a job to request said item from staff. We don’t tolerate abuse of the system. If lots of players abuse the system, self-spending will be stopped and the offending players will be called out as “this is why we can’t have nice things”. And then, staff will be spending their precious time approving equip lists for players instead of doing plot and other fun stuff. Again, your call. Logs Scenes that are meant to be public knowledge, i.e. court, or sphere-wide events, can be posted on the wiki. Due to the OOC Masq, we don’t encourage putting logs on the wiki. However, we do encourage keeping logs. Players should log all PvP and plot activities, and have them on hand when asked. We also think it would be neat to have a repository of logs that we keep staff-side, to be released to the public once the game ends. As we all know, MUSHes don’t last forever, and people might like something that they can look back on and remember once its all gone. Submitting logs to the repository is completely voluntary. Remember that your logs will be made public when the game ends, so don’t submit anything you don’t want others to read. Mature Themes Each player has the responsibility to know their own limits and not involve themselves in RP that they will find upsetting or confrontational. Storytellers will put up trigger-warnings wherever possible. Merits We expect people to be spending Merits as an investment for their political positions or jobs. For example, a Harpy-hopeful may spend points in “Cacophony Savvy” or a Keeper may spend points in "Safe Place" or “Staff” for Elysium. A Lancea Sanctum Bishop may need to spend points for "Covenant Status: 5". These Merits can be returned, with justification, for XP spent when the character no longer has that job. OOC Masq We take the OOC Masq seriously due to the political nature of our game. People have the right not to volunteer any IC information when asked OOCly. Please also do not leave any information on the wiki that wouldn’t be publicly known. Played-Bys NSFW pictures need to be marked NSFW. Anime played-bys are not allowed. Underage played-bys are not allowed. PrP Players can run PrPs with minimal restrictions. Do whatever you want. Try not to break the game. We do maintain the caveat that if you break the game too badly, retcons are possible. However, we as staff will try to accommodate players as much as possible, to the extent of changing metaplots or changing the non-established backgrounds of NPCs to fit player plots. It is also possible for players to be asked to change the details of their plots, usually for continuity reasons. PrPs that require pre-approval would be plots that involve large scale changes to the game world or changes to large swathes of the grid. There are certain themes that we don’t encourage because it is not the focus of the game. We want to keep the focus of the game local and at city level. We don’t encourage: *Plots about majorly affecting international relations. Blackmailing the Soviet ambassador in West Berlin is fine, but single-handedly ending the Cold War is not. *Plots about non-covert military actions. No invading other countries. No getting your military allies to roll their tanks over your rival’s haven. We don’t offer military status or allies as Merits because of the anticipated limited use in the game. Player characters /can/ be in the military or have allies in the military. They can take Professional Training or skills to represent being in the military, but they do not take Status, Allies, or any other Influence Merits. *Plots about world-changing events. We don’t want any end of the world scenarios because it is not the focus of our game. After running your plot, tell us about it so that you can get XP. In your plot, include the events, who was involved, and any changes made to the game world including sheets, grids or builds. If you could include a new grid desc, that would be most helpful. Players are welcome to use the established NPCs in their plots. Please tell staff so that you can be supplied with their ST file or staff can @emit them if schedule or time permits. PvP Attacks against another PC with the intention of causing final death or torpor, or attacks against important sites like Elysium or another player’s Haven will have to be submitted in a job to staff so that it can be monitored. Logs are compulsory. It is ideal if a staff member is present to adjudicate. A timestop may be called until the issue is resolved. Combat cannot unintentionally cause torpor or final death. Intention to kill must be declared, and the first hit in combat cannot cause torpor or final death.